The Kostënki 18 child burial and the cultural and funerary landscape of Mid Upper Palaeolithic European Russia

Abstract

There are numerous burials known from Upper Palaeolithic contexts in European Russia. One of the lesser-known of these burials is that found at Kostënki 18, in the Kostënki-Borshchëvo region on the Don river near Voronezh. At this site, a lithic assemblage attributed to the Kostënki-Avdeevo Culture was also found, but no direct stratigraphic connection could be established between the burial and the lithic assemblage. In this paper we describe this burial and present a new direct date for the human remains obtained using the single amino acid (hydroxyproline) method. The new date provides support for the hypothesis that the burial and lithic assemblage found at Kostënki 18 are linked. We also briefly discuss the significance of the Russian Upper Palaeolithic burial record for the understanding of early burials across Europe.